What is Woods' case against the state?

Mr Wood is suing the state of NSW for millions of dollars plus costs for malicious prosecution and wrongful imprisonment, based on a number of grounds including a "hopelessly corrupted" and "ridiculous" police case against him.

The claim alleges the case was fuelled by Byrne's jealous ex-boyfriend Andrew Blanchette, who was a police officer at the time.

It is also based on allegations police were given irrelevant information by Ms Byrne's grieving father, Tony Byrne, who was looking for answers about his daughter's death and that a key crown expert witness had a motive to see Mr Wood convicted because he was writing a book.

Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi, QC, was prepared to "bend the rules" by putting submissions to the jury without any evidence, it alleges.

When the head of the investigation team, Detective Paul Jacob, first phoned Professor Cross, he told him a story about Mr Wood asking to see Byrne's breasts when her body was in Glebe morgue that simply was not true, the court heard.

The court heard the story, which received widespread media coverage, was "made up" by Byrne's jealous ex-boyfriend who hated Mr Wood.

"Of all the things that were said about my client … this probably was the most damaging. It was totally false," Mr McClintock said.

He said police also told Professor Cross that another crown witness, artist John Doherty, saw two men and a woman arguing at The Gap about the time Byrne died.

"It's obvious that police — whether intentionally or not — poisoned Professor Cross' mind by putting these things into it," he said.

The court has heard Professor Cross became "part of the police investigation team" when he should have remained independent.

Commenting on some of Professor Cross's assertions Mr McClintock told the court: "To call this junk science does a disservice to the word junk."

Mr Woods' legal team is arguing that the police and Professor Cross moulded their evidence to whatever would suit their case that Mr Wood was guilty.

His malicious prosecution claim is also that Professor Cross had a motive to see him convicted because he was writing a book "Evidence for Murder: How Physics Convicted a Killer".

Mr McClintock said if the book had been called "How Dodgy Data Failed to Convict an Innocent Man" sales would not have been nearly as good.

'Flawed' police work

Part of Mr Woods' case is that police presented flawed evidence to the jury that should never have been used to prosecute.

The court has been played an infamous television interview aired by the Channel 7 "Witness" program in 1998.

In the interview — reporter Paul Barry quizzes Mr Wood about his girlfriend's death and accuses him of inconsistencies in his evidence.

Mr Wood replies that he is telling the truth.

But at the end of the paid interview with the cameras still running, Mr Wood says to Paul Barry: "So do you think I did it?"

Photographs of The Gap taken in 2003 were given to the jury, which was told the photographs were taken in 1996, the court has heard.

"The case against my client was, to put it mildly, flawed. Some might say that, when one analyses it, it was actually ridiculous," Mr McClintock said.

Crown witness Mr Blanchett encouraged Byrne's employer June Dally-Watkins to behave like "Miss Marple", and do her own detective work by going around The Gap with photos of the model showing them to people, the barrister said.

Mr McClintock said Byrnes' father had always refused to accept that his daughter committed suicide.